Bengals Beat: The Fine Line Between Respect and Awe for Bill Belichick

CINCINNATI — As a native of Staten Island, New York, Lou Anarumo grew up a big New York Yankees fan. And a fan of the New York Football Giants.

Anarumo was 20 years old when Bill Belichick was the defensive coordinator of the New York Giants the year the Giants won their first Super Bowl with an all-time defense. They won their second Super Bowl in 1990 with largely the same cast on defense.

There was Lawrence Taylor, Carl Banks, Harry Carson, Pepper Johnson, Jim Burt, Leonard Marshall and George Martin. In 1990, George Martin, Jim Burt and Harry Carson were gone but Belichick still drew up a defense that shut down Jim Kelly’s “K Gun” no-huddle offense, a defensive game plan that found its way to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton.

Which Giants defense was better? 86 or 90?

“I’ll go with the 86. We were just ass-kickers,” Anarumo said of his G-Men. “Not that we weren’t in 90, but we beat the 49ers. I say we. We killed them in the Meadowlands that one year. The Montana, Rice and all that. Just a great defense. It was unbelievable.”

The Bengals have their own ass-kickers that have endeared themselves to Bengals fans now. DJ Reader and BJ Hill in the middle of the line. Trey Hendrickson, Sam Hubbard and Joseph Ossai on the edges, linebackers Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt and Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates in the secondary. There are similarities. Now all Anarumo needs to make the ultimate comparison is a Super Bowl ring.

To say those Belichick defenses formed Anarumo’s philosophy of always keeping the offense guessing is a vast understatement. Anarumo acknowledges it’s a different game now, with speed putting different pressures on defenses that just weren’t there 30 years ago.

A little bit. It was just a different game back then and some of the things you saw and some of the things we’re seeing now are just totally different,” Anarumo said. “But great tackling teams, great leverage on the ball, getting off blocks. All those things were a pillar of what Coach (Bill) Parcells and Coach Belichick have always taught and you always want to have that as a defense, for sure.”

Anarumo, who coached defensive backs with the Giants in 2018 before coming to Cincinnati, says he’ll always have a special respect for Belichick and the incredible impact he’s had on the game over six decades.

“He was the defensive coordinator of the Giants, I mean, you know, when I was a little kid,” Anarumo said. “So, he’s been doing it forever and is arguably the greatest coach to have ever coached the game. We all have taken stuff along the way but he’s unbelievable.”

The irony of this is that Bill Belichick for years has spoken at length about the incredible impact that Bengals patriarch Paul Brown had on him. Belichick even today models all of his teaching methods off the Paul Brown method he read about and learned from those who played and coached under him, like Jim Brown, Don Shula, Chuck Noll just to name a few.

Then there’s Joe Burrow’s attitude. He, of course, respects Belichick but is careful not to go overboard in his praise. Why?

“I just didn’t really think that way,” Burrow said Tuesday. “I think if you get too caught up in those moments with people that have played for a long time, I think you lose your competitive advantage.

“We know they’re very well coached. They’re going to have a good plan. You see it every week and on film. They’ll have a plan for certain guys. They’ll have a third- down plan that you probably haven’t seen. They’ll have a red-zone plan you haven’t seen, so you’ll have to make adjustments.”

Burrow has never been one to be in awe. Take his first interaction with Belichick in early 2020, just before the pandemic.

“We met at a steakhouse in Miami when I was coming out, right before my draft in 2020. Right before COVID hit,” Burrow recalled. “I just went up and introduced myself, it was me and Coach (Matt) Patricia at the time, just went up to introduce myself.”

Travel Plans:

The Bengals will be beating the “Bomb Cyclone” out of town, moving up their trip to Providence to Thursday night in order to miss the rain, ice and wind in the forecast for Friday. Zac Taylor said Tuesday the change in travel plans will not disrupt their planning or meeting schedule ahead of Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff. The Bengals traditionally have their walk-through two days before kick-off, travel the day before and then have meetings the afternoon and night before.

Trey Hendrickson, Mike Hilton and Hayden Hurst return:

While Sam Hubbard was in a walking boot leaving Paycor Stadium Tuesday and will likely be out the next couple of weeks, there was good news on other fronts, namely Hubbard’s edge partner. Trey Hendrickson broke his wrist against the Browns on Dec. 11 and missed Sunday vs. Tampa Bay. Hendrickson was back at the walk-through on Tuesday with a splint on his right thumb. He was listed as “limited” in the projected practice report. Mike Hilton, who injured his right knee on Dec. 11 also, was back Tuesday and also listed as limited. And Hayden Hurst, out the last two games due to a strained right calf, returned to practice Tuesday. He was out at practice last week on the rehab field and has said he’s been making good progress.